Musings on Toilet Paper

I am a toilet paper snob.

I will, and do, buy store brand milk, spaghetti sauce, crackers, cheese, napkins, trash bags and bagels (actually, we like the store brand bagels best!), but I have always splurged on so-called “premium” toilet paper.

What can I say? I really like the feel of something thick and soft on my bottom, rather than thin and rough (Git yer minds out of the gutter people!). I have always told my kids they only need “2 squares” after finishing a “typical” jaunt in the bathroom, but that rule is relaxed when out in public, since we typically need 5 times that to do the job. I have even wondered how much money people actually do save using the cheap stuff, considering you have to use so  much more of it per task, not to mention the lack of comfort factor during the process.

But recently I came across an article that has me second guessing myself. Apparently to make the really soft toilet paper (and tissues, paper towels, napkins and virtually any other product we prefer soft) they have to use old trees, since the fibers are longer. Recycled paper cannot be soft – only standing trees, the older the better, can do that. How awful to think of beautiful old trees being grown only to end up wiping you-know-what and being flushed away.

I like this quote at the end of the article and hope it’s true: “If they can put a man on the moon, they can create soft toilet paper without cutting down trees.”

For the record, I am an “over” person.

To Do

We have friends visiting this weekend! We usually visit them, but this time they are coming to us, which is going to be really fun. I’m not so good at “entertaining” so meal planning for this weekend is stressing me out a bit. I just don’t know how to plan for more people than our usual three, and what they will/won’t eat. And little things like decluttering  – they will sleep in the “pink room” which is where my kids have their dressers, and there is no flat surface for them to put anything on. Plus, the bathrooms need to be cleaned. However, I have stocked up on plenty of adult beverages for us to indulge in – the mangoes are ripening on the counter for the mango margaritas, and the avocados for guacamole are almost ripe enough. They’ll be here in about 24 hours – I’ll probably technically still be working but hopefully I’ll have the bulk of my “must dos” done so I can visit.

Have I mentioned how much in love I am with our little Ruby?? She is such a sweet little dog!

What’s that other dog’s name again?

Here’s Ruby sleeping in my desk chair. Where I’m supposed to be sitting and working. Usually she sleeps on my lap while I’m sitting here, but I had to get up and plopped her down. She made herself comfortable.

Human versus Machine

I am not a “shopper”, but I love gadgets.

I’m good with directions, but don’t always plan ahead.

Yesterday I needed to make a trip to the Apple store. The closest Apple store to us is, well, not very close. While we live about equidistant from two big malls, neither has been blessed with the mecca that is the Apple store. (Oh, and now might be a good time to say that my love of gadgets is really testing my self-control as I am lusting for every version of iPod Apple is currently selling – they keep making them better and better!) Phew. Anyway, the closest one is to the east of us, to a part of the state I rarely travel to, and don’t know very well.

So, when it was time to go, I pulled out another gadget in the form of my GPS unit and pulled up the POI (Points of Interest) in the town the mall is in and started on my way.

I faithfully followed Samantha’s directions (that’s the name assigned to the GPS voice). Now, I had an actual appointment at the Apple store. To discuss a problem with my old iPod shuffle. An appointment, meaning they were expecting me at a certain time. Samantha was projecting we’d be there with plenty of time left over, and I was relaxed and enjoying the beautiful day. Krystal was playing at a friend’s and it was just Belle and me. Ah, glorious day!

The “miles to destination” was getting lower and lower and the time was getting close to appointment time. We got stuck behind a few slow lights and our big time cushion started to slip away.

I started getting tense. And I tried to tell myself not to, since, really, who cares? It’s not life or death. It’s an appointment at a store, for crying out loud. Still, my Type A, always follow directions self was getting uptight!

Suddenly Samantha announced “You have reached your destination.” Except……I was still driving down a road and there was no mall, or any other discernible “destination” in sight!

Now, I’m freaking out. I’m po’d that my GPS doesn’t know where the hell a huge mall is, having angst over my appointment which I’m very nearly late for, and still have no idea where this freaking mall is.

Belle was shouting what she thought were helpful suggestions from the back seat, but in my agitated mood they were annoying and not helpful, or cute (sorry, honey!). I did what any reasonable person would do in 1999 – I pulled into a gas station and asked directions.

A few minutes later we pulled in to the mall. It was about 10 minutes past my appointment time, and I had no idea where in the mall the Apple store might be.

But we found it.

And all was well.

When we returned to the car I made sure to let Samantha know that this location is the mall, and I hope, if I ever need to go again, she will remember.

And if Samantha doesn’t remember, at least I should.

It’s Label Day

Happy Label Day! Errr, make that Happy Labor Day! Krystal has trouble with her “r” sounds and has been calling it Label Day all weekend -it’s been an interesting lesson in speech!

Let me ask you something – do you know what the origin of Labor Day is? I’ll tell you what I thought. I thought it was a day set aside to honor the American worker. Although even as a child I wondered how the hospital workers, police, fire and convenience store workers celebrated since, let’s face it, someone is always working. Even more so in this day and age when we don’t seem to be able to turn it off. Still, isn’t it nice that there is a holiday set aside to not work?

Is that what you thought too? If so, we’re both wrong!

This article was in the Boston Globe yesterday and it was a revelation to me. In case you don’t want to read the whole thing, I’ll summarize.

When President Grover Cleveland signed the bill establishing a Labor Day holiday in 1884, it was intended not as a day of leisure, but as a day to promote the American work ethic. The day was supposed to be a reminder for us all to renew our commitment to work, the highest calling, and get back to it. It was placed at the end of summer to mark the end of “indolence”.

The article is quite long, and very interesting from a historical standpoint about the evolution of our culture.

I like knowing the history, but this holiday still works out to be a long, work-free weekend for me. Some labels I’m OK with – on this one, feel free to label me a hedonist.

An Olfactory Mystery

Ah spring!

Spring deserves celebration because of warmer weather, outdoor activities, green grass, buds on trees, and all the beautiful flowers it brings!

I’ve been doing some regular running, which is through the streets near our house, all of which are residential. In the winter sometimes I run through a warm pocket, just a little blip where it doesn’t feel quite so cold for a few strides. In the spring I get a whiff of what smells like marshmallows to me.

I noticed that same marshmallow smell in our yard, so I decided to take a picture. I have three flowering plants in the “garden” (term used extremely loosely) in the side yard, but when I sniff them up close, I do not detect any particular smell. I am including a photo of the plant I think is the source, but I’m not entirely sure. One of the other flowering plants is an azalea bush, but I’m not sure on the other. Still, does anyone know what this plant is?

And a close up:

Whether you can identify this plant or not, does anyone know what type of plant might smell like marshmallows?

In other news — I think I am done watching American Idol. It takes up so much time during the season, and I was really disappointed with the way this year’s eliminations went. Some of my faves were eliminated early on, and I could not be more underwhelmed (b-o-r-e-d) with the winner. Can I complain since I don’t vote? Well, with their current voting system, you better believe it, because if I did vote, I’d call in one time, not set up banks of automated dialers/texters the way some do it.

Anyway, moving on…..

Picture the heat

A couple of things I want to point out in the photo above:

1. The date: April 28 (2009 – that is today)
2. The outside temperature: 95 degrees F

That is the outside temperature at my house today. My house is located in the northeast USA. New England. To be more specific, New Hampshire. Ninety-five degrees!!!!

I am not complaining – I am just amazed. I know it won’t last, but boy, I wish this translated to 50 degree January days….

I’m embarrassed. And appalled. And I need to read more.

I’m really embarrassed to admit this — I just found out yesterday what “waterboarding” means. It causes me no small amount of shame to come here and admit that publicly.

Now, I consider myself a reasonably intelligent person. And while I’m aware (vaguely, apparently) of current events, I don’t watch the news*. I’m self-aware enough to know not to have an in-depth conversation about a lot of news-worthy topics with you, mostly because I know I’m not knowledgeable enough to carry my end of things. These last few days when I’ve seen the Internet headlines referring to waterboarding, I assumed it was some political term, like filibustering or pork barrel spending.

Then I Googled it.

And I was appalled.

I can’t believe people are doing this to each other. I won’t even go into the high level sanctioning of this behavior, which seems pretty apparent from the little I have now read about it all. Just the fact that this is going on at all, in the 21st century, is mind boggling to me. It makes me sick.

Obviously I need to climb out of my self-imposed bubble and expand my political awareness. My kids deserve it.

*Before kids I had the news on constantly, but I find that the early news is on right when we’re in the thick of dinner and homework, and our all too limited “family” time. And when we do catch a snippet of news, the questions come so fast and furious (from the kids). Some of what is in the news is simply not appropriate for them, but I also cannot pay attention when I have constant chatter going on. Seriously. Try watching a show (any show) with my kids in the room. I dare you.

A taste of honey is worse than none at all….

First, an update on my self-imposed Internet free day, which was yesterday. At least most of yesterday was. I made it till about 6:30 pm, which was after dinner, and the girls were watching a show before bed. I gave in and fired up the Mac, and didn’t feel guilty about it. I had a productive day “off the grid” where I went through a lot of outgrown clothes of the girls, as well as culling out a few of my own clothes, most of which are dreadfully out of style, as opposed to outgrown. The girls and I took Tessie for a walk and enjoyed the very spring-like, sunny, warm day we had.

And then we woke up to this:

It is not obvious, but the snow is still coming down in those photos. Can I just say how done I am with the snow?? It hurts all the more because of the delicious taste of spring we had the previous two days.

Well, it can’t stay winter forever……right?

It Doesn’t Hurt to Ask

I am ridiculously responsible with money. I always pay my bills on time. Thanks to online bill pay, which I’ve been using since 1997 or so, it’s easy to pay a bill as soon as it comes in – I typically set the “pay” date about a week before the due date, but then it’s done and I can file the bill and not think about it again.

Now, about a year and a half or so ago I was in our local Kohl’s store, and had amassed, for me, a rather large amount of items, with a large final total. They were pushing the store charge with 10% off your purchase and I said, “what the heck”. So I got a Kohl’s charge and once a month or so they send me a coupon for 15, 20 or 30% off for a 7 day time period, and sometimes, especially if I get a 30% coupon, I’ll make a trip to see what I can see.

On Christmas Eve my mom was here and this allowed me to go out, alone, to do some last minute shopping. I had a 30% off coupon so I went to Kohl’s. I bought gifts for my step-sisters and step-nephews (who I still haven’t seen to exchange gifts with – we are so lame) and a few other things. After the discount the total was around $70 and I felt like I got some decent bargains.

Some time after that it occurred to me that I hadn’t seen a Kohl’s bill in awhile, so I went online to see if I could see it there. I did, and it wasn’t due yet, so I breathed a sigh of relief and figured I may as well pay it now, since I can set the date to pay online. When the bill came in the mail later, I filed it since I’d already paid it. It sure feels good to be so organized and responsible, let me tell you.

Well, last week I got an email from Kohl’s saying my account was past due. WHAT!?!?  I immediately went to my online bill pay account to verify the date it was paid. And saw that in fact, my last payment to Kohl’s had been some time in the fall. I hadn’t paid the Christmas bill at all. And now they’d tacked on a late fee, completely wiping out my 30% savings. Damn! Of course I paid it right away once I saw that, cursing my own stupidity the whole time.

The second bill came on Monday. I let it sit on the counter, mocking me, for several days. I didn’t want to open it and see that late fee in black and white, reminding me how irresponsible and disorganized I was.

But overnight I had a thought. This morning I opened that bill. I called the number on it and listened to the automated voice tell me my balance was zero (phew!) and then pushed “0″ to speak to a representative. I very nicely asked this 12-year-old-sounding customer service rep to remove the late charge as a gesture of good will to an otherwise excellent customer. And she did! Just like that! I was probably on the phone for no more than 20 seconds.

I am thrilled at the ease with which that was all accomplished, and will just have to be more responsible in the future. Sheesh!

But let that be a lesson to you, and a reminder to me. It doesn’t hurt to ask.

My Current Pet Peeve, also known as, Can’t people follow simple directions anymore?

We live in a “neighborhood”, and our house is on a corner. Our mailbox and driveway are on the side street, and not the street that is in our address. In fact, thanks to the previous owners, the mailbox sports our street number, and our street name. Got that?

In just the last week my doorbell has rung unexpectedly on three different occasions. Two of these rings occurred after dark,  after the kids were in bed, and it was a little unnerving.

Upon answering the door (with my barking ferocious 7 month old dog in tow) I have found:

• Domino’s Pizza delivery person
• Pizza Hut delivery person
• Cable TV technician

And that’s just in the last week!

I’ve also had guys attempting furniture delivery, Terminix responding to a pest call, flowers delivered on Mother’s Day (sorry, my kids can’t quite afford that yet) and many more pizza deliveries. (Apparently they really like pizza.) As you may have guessed, these are all for the people who live on the side street, with the same house number as mine.

Isn’t it pretty universal that the street the front door faces is the street the house is actually on? And if not, perhaps the street name on the mailbox isn’t obvious enough?

I wish I knew how to handle this. I don’t know the neighbors, but the only thing I can think of would be to let them know how often their delivery people come to my house first, and to ask them to be clear about directions when they order anything, but even that would probably be only about 50% successful.

Oh well, at least it gives me something to blog about.